Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4
30 years ago solar power cost some where around $10 per watt and oil was cheap. So even if the US would have started 30 years ago we would have maybe several more gigawatts of solar power installed, for 10 times the cost it is today, those panels would probably be well on their way out after 30 years. So starting 30 years earlier would have given no measurable gain, aside from higher national debt.
So no regrets on not "starting 30 years earlier" as far as I can see.
Like global warming there is no debate about how horrible china's environmental stewardship is.
So no comment on the horrible $ to kwh conversion solar tends to run?
I don't have any thing against solar, I'm working towards installing several kw of solar on my house. I just don't understand the green lust everyone has.
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I agree with what you say,but there's a context,only in which your values would have merit,with caveats and conditions.
The well-to-wheels cost of fuel was on the order of $15 /gallon.Since the 'externalities' weren't reflected at the pump there was an illusion of cheap oil.From the song lyric "from the shores of Tripoli" there's a message.
Cheap oil was a $2.90/Barrel wellhead price for West Texas intermediate crude,on October 22,1973.Saudi Arabia's wellhead price was $0.25/barrel.Gasoline in my hometown was selling at $0.25/gallon.On the next day it changed forever.
I'm an Oklahoma oil producer,and I'm receiving $70/Barrel today,from wells which were producing for the family in 1973 and before.I don't lift a finger for it.
Solar would have (and is) a bargain.That's coming from a 'oil man.'
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As to green lust:
Man is combusting hydrocarbons in volumes equal to a 100-year-old Oak forest,forest fire,equal in surface area to the entire surface of Earth,every 7-months.We burned 30,000 years worth of forest since 1850.
The folks who pay attention to such things find this a bit disconcerting and have made solid causal links to global warming,something they see no good in.
Conservation measures between 1973 and 1985 increased GNP 32% for 21 participating IEA nations.
If you want to wreck the US economy keep filling half your tank with foreign oil.